Intellect Neurosciences receives patent for insulin sensitizer drugs

Aug 12 2010

Intellect Neurosciences, Inc. (OTCBB:ILNS), a biopharmaceutical company with an internal preclinical and clinical-stage pipeline and licenses with major pharmaceutical companies covering products in late-stage clinical trials, announced today that its Chairman & CEO, Dr. Daniel Chain, was granted a patent by the European Patent and Trademark Office related to the use of insulin sensitizers for the prevention and treatment of memory loss and dementia. Insulin sensitizer drugs include Rosiglitazone and Pioglitazone, which have been approved for the treatment of type II diabetes mellitus. Dr. Chain is co-inventor of the patent with Professor Mike Cawthorne, Director of Metabolic Research, Clore Laboratory at The University of Buckingham (www.buckingham.ac.uk/clore) and leader of the research team that originally discovered Rosiglitazone as a diabetes treatment. Dr. Chain applied for this patent prior to founding Intellect in 2005. Intellect Neurosciences holds an option to acquire the patent from its current owners.      

This patent is the second European patent awarded to Dr. Chain. Previously, he was granted a patent for Intellect's ANTISENILIN^® platform for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ANTISENILIN^® platform is the underlying technology of the Company's preclinical IN-N01 humanized monoclonal antibody, and of Ponezumab, which is in Phase 2 clinical trials, and Bapineuzumab, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials, both of which are being developed by global pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Chain commented, "Dr. Cawthorne and I are pleased by the grant of a new patent in Europe relating to this novel approach. We predicted that some of the drugs now used in the treatment of diabetes may also help in the treatment and prevention of AD and other forms of memory loss. We are hopeful that drugs that improve glucose utilization in the brain could be used to treat memory loss in presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease or perhaps treat age-related memory loss." Dr. Chain continued: "Glucose is used by cells in the brain to make the energy needed for the cells to live, but glucose utilization may be impaired in the brains of older people and those suffering from senile dementia or other forms of memory loss.  There is growing evidence that defective brain glucose utilization results from resistance to the action of insulin. Insulin sensitizer drugs such as Rosiglitazone and Pioglitazone help brain cells properly use glucose. This approach has generated considerable interest in the pharmaceutical industry, as there is now compelling evidence from clinical trials supporting this theory."